Santana Minerals is pleased to announce a contracted drill rig has successfully mobilised to site and commenced a maiden drilling program at the Phu Lon Nickel Prospect within the Sayabouly Project in Laos.

The program will test part of the 14km x 1km nickel mineralised ultramafic intrusive unit, with previously recorded trench results of: 975m @ 0.51% Ni (including 42m @ 1.02% Ni), 90m @ 0.67% Ni (including 36m 1.01% Ni), and 80m @ 0.74% Ni (including 17m @ 0.91% Ni). A three-line induced polarisation (IP) survey (an electrical geophysics technique) identified three separate high chargeability and low resistivity zones, coincident with significant nickel trench sampling results (Santana ASX Announcement 17 July 2019).

These anomalies were interpreted to be buried zones of nickel sulphide mineralisation and are high priority drill targets during this campaign. Petrological analysis of trench rock-chips identified nickel sulphide mineralisation to further bolster this hypothesis (Santana ASX Announcement 25 November 2019).

The drilling program initially consists of 13 holes totalling 2,000m, commencing with drilling of diamond holes in the north of the prospect (Trench 4), then moving and drilling the significant trench results recorded from Trenches 1 and 2 in the south. Drilling of the central zone will be completed on completion of drilling in these two areas.

Santana Minerals' CEO Shane Pike commented: 'We are extremely excited to have now commenced our maiden drilling campaign at the Phu Lon Nickel Prospect. Some excellent trenching results and petrology analysis have provided us a great interpretive model from which to plan and execute this drilling program. Over the course of the next several weeks we will systematically target interpreted zones of nickel sulphide mineralisation, the confirmation of which has the potential to deliver significant value for all Santana shareholders.'

First assay results from the program are expected to be returned late-February.

This announcement has been authorised for release to the ASX by the CEO.

Contact:

Shane Pike

Tel: +61 (0) 417 671 301

Email: shane.pike@santanaminerals.com

(C) 2020 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire